An NFL policy change will bar players with convictions for domestic violence, sexual assault or weapons offenses from attending the league’s annual scouting combine in Indianapolis.

USA Today reported Monday night that teams were informed of this policy change in a memo from NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent in late January. In the memo, Vincent wrote that players would be barred from “any league-related event” if a background check turns up a felony or misdemeanor conviction. Those players would also be prevented from attending the draft.

Players that refuse to submit to a background check will also be uninvited.

The new rule would have applied last year to Frank Clark, who ended up being a second-round pick of the Seahawks. Clark pleaded guilty to a lesser charge after an arrest for a domestic violence incident that led to his dismissal from the Michigan football team.

“It is important for us to remain strongly committed to league values as we demonstrate to our fans, future players, coaches, general managers, and others who support our game that character matters,” Vincent wrote.

They should ban these players from the league, period. Also, of any player has gang affiliation, no NFL for them. The NFL doesn’t really care about drugs. If they did, the testing wouldn’t be done on a schedule. It is funny, they let these guys know when the test will be, and they still fail it.

There are already a limited number of NFL ready players as is. You begin with artificial limits due to non-football issues and you just water down the quality of the product on the field. I think too much is made of a kids poor decision making during school years. If you think this is gonna stop them from making these decisions, you are laughable. I mean, you’d think the prospect of a prison cell would be a deterrent but alas they happen anyway. This is no different.

I don’t care what you do outside of the stadium. Your personal life and it’s progress or destruction is your business. I only care about the sacks you make or avoid, the touch downs you catch, throw, or intercept, the runs you break loose or stuff. This isn’t politically correct for sure but I don’t care. It’s football!

Banning them from the combine and draft just means that they are free agents straight out of college. The initial contract won’t be great, but it is only three years and then they can restructure it however they want. So, if you are a consensus number one draft pick, but you don’t want to play for the team that might pick you first, can you go out and get yourself charged with something that will be dismissed in due time then sign with the team you ACTUALLY want to play for?

Banning them from the combine and draft just means that they are free agents straight out of college.
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The article doesn’t say they can’t be drafted. It says they can’t ATTEND the draft. So, while this is a step in the right direction, it’s really just league window dressing and not a huge incentive for draft prospects to behave like civilized human beings.

Clark pleaded guilty to persistent disorderly conduct on the 2014 incident, but was not convicted of DV. That doesn’t make him a better person, but he would have been eligible for the combine under the new rules.

bassplucker says:
Feb 9, 2016 9:48 AM
Banning them from the combine and draft just means that they are free agents straight out of college.
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The article doesn’t say they can’t be drafted. It says they can’t ATTEND the draft. So, while this is a step in the right direction, it’s really just league window dressing and not a huge incentive for draft prospects to behave like civilized human beings.

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I see. I misunderstood. Yeah, then this basically means nothing other than teams get some minor bad press from bringing kids with a history in for a team visit. Yeah, nothing but a PR move.

Way to slap a band aid on a heart attack. This won’t change a thing about where the ‘risky character’ guys will get drafted, and they’ll still get paid. They’ll just have private workouts on campus. This is just a PR move that doesn’t do a thing otherwise.

As good as this idea sounds, it just means that when it comes to blue chip prospects their colleges and the booster clubs will just try harder to influence the police and court system to let these kids slide if they get in trouble. If sexual assault and domestic abuse charges were hard to prosecute already, it will be even harder to pin that to elite athletes because there will be even more at stake.

WOW. Judging by these comments it’s pretty clear that the NFL’s public relations department actually pulled one over on the American public. It seems clear that people don’t understand what this means. The NFL is banning the felons and players with misdemeanor convictions from ATTENDING league events. The NFL is NOT banning them from being drafted. The NFL is saying they just don’t want them there on prom (draft) night.

This is another example of the NFL doing as little as possible in order to appear as if they care about the issue of domestic violence. If the NFL actually cared about the issue, they would not allow felons be apart of their league. It’s as simple as that. Banning misdemeanors and felons from stupid draft day events is not going to change anything.

Would Frank Clark really have affected by this policy? It states that players with a felony or misdemeanor conviction for domestic violence, sexual assault or weapons offenses are banned from the events.